History of Chinese Literary Theory and Criticism, Volume 1

Author: Zhang Shaokang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Ancient Chinese literary theory and criticism is a summary of the historical development of literary creation and artistic creative experience by the ancients. It reflects the literary observations and evolution of ancient Chinese people, as well as various literary criticism methods, aesthetic standards, and aesthetic tastes, differing from Western literary theory and criticism. The author divides the history of Chinese literary theory and criticism into two major stages—ancient and modern—and five periods: the Pre-Qin (Emergence Period), the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties (Development and Maturity Period), the Tang, Song, Jin, and Yuan (Victorious Expansion Period), the Ming and Qing (Prosperous and Peak Period), and the Modern (Sino-Western Integration Period). The book is divided into five parts, with a total of 32 chapters. The author has long been engaged in the research and teaching of Chinese literary theory and criticism, carefully absorbing certain research achievements from existing critical histories. In terms of format arrangement, content selection, and viewpoint evaluation, the author has unique insights. He pays particular attention to offering his own perspectives on key aspects of the history of literary content criticism, exploring the major contributions of important literary content critics from different periods to the development of the critical history, and ultimately summarizing problems with regular patterns. The first volume contains 14 chapters, discussing literary theory and criticism from the Pre-Qin, Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties periods to the Tang Dynasty.